A very amusing video…and absolutely savage.
Warning, there are a few dirty words.
The only comment I’ll make is that I’m an old-fashioned romantic, so the concept of community-based, volunteer-staffed fire departments is very appealing. But I reckon that’s not realistic in many cases, so I have no philosophical objection to government-financed fire departments. But why can’t they be “contracted out,” so various private fire-fighting companies can place bids? I think some communities actually do it this way, though maybe my info is out of date.
Or if the local governments want to operate fire departments, why not peg total compensation to the local average of private sector wages and benefits? If there are not enough qualified applicants, that would be an indication that a premium is warranted (that would be no surprise since firefighters periodically put their lives on the line). But don’t have insider contracts between local politicians and government employee union bosses, which result in absurd contracts – with some of the money recycled back to politicians as campaign contributions. That’s a sweet deal for everyone…except the taxpayers.
They left out the nightmares from doing it 39 years, the vomit, blood, dead babies, screaming mothers, screaming wives, bagging up dead burned up kids and old people, smelling like smoke in the shower for a week after a fire when all the toxins are exiting you body through your skin. Yea, it was just like this video. A piece of cake. Nobody in my family suffered, I didnt suffer. Great recruitment video for anyone that believes its a walk in the park.
Wow… so many haters had something to say in here. I’m in no way related to the field but I can recognize a hater from a mile away. In all honesty though, if you care or should I say, hate, something so much, call your councilman or vote another one in. If not, you and those like you are the only ones to blame.
Hate on.
[…] I’m beginning to think that firefighters in big cities are the most cossetted of all bureaucrats. I now understand the hostility in this video. […]
Excellent video! Public-sector workers are on defined-benefit pension plans with guaranteed returns. The rest of us have to settle for 401-K plans, in which we assume all the risks for whatever we invest in. The system is unsustainable as recent bankruptcies in San Berdo and Stockton show. When these “heroes” lose their pension due to city/municipal bankruptcies, nobody is going to cry tears for them.
Firefighters, stop trying to justify your existence by adding additional disciplines into the “fire service”. In our current system, police officers respond to crimes, paramedics respond to medical calls, while “firefighters” respond to fires, rescues, medicals, hazardous materials, and everything else. (jack of all trades, suck at them all.) The concept of an all-hazards/all-risk fire department is truly bullshit when you consider that crime and civil disorder is also a hazard, so how come the fire department won’t also provide law enforcement too? In a logical system, firefighters respond to fires, paramedics respond to medical calls, HAZMAT workers respond to hazardous incidents, and rescuers respond to SAR calls (I would much rather trust a SAR specialist whose primary job is search and rescue to rescue me from a cliff, rather than a “firefighter” who holds a rescue certificate.
[…] P.P.P.S. If you think firefighters are overpaid, you’ll like this video. […]
[…] P.P.P.S. If you think firefighters are overpaid, you’ll like this video. […]
Douches you make an average of 80k annually nice try though & how many of those ER calls nothing more then an ambulance doing all the work you guys show up for show! Capitalism doesn’t mean municipal workers blow an Irish politician so they should get paid ? Ma over 100k so stop trying the liberal short term memory fake facts. Most fireman never see nothing more then a small fire there whole career before becoming a Let Colonel? Most get hired because they did favors for Barney Frank
I have a grand Idea, instead of privatizing the FD, instead of continuously handing money out to the poor only to use drugs. We change the FD to a normal shift of 8 hours a day! They (FF) don’t want this because this will take away from the notion that they work 24 hours a day. I am sure we will get a great response to that. Make it 3 shifts a day you are paid by the hour like the rest, you will work either the day, swing or night shift and be paid accordingly. I work in a private business and work from 55 to 75 hours a week depending on the business climate, I work 6 to 7 days a week, I don’t have time to go start a second business like many FF.
We can all agree that there is a need for FF and yes there is a need for reform to our system, welfare, and government spending. I by no means want to see our FD privatized, that is not the answer, the answer is to get out from behind this notion of we have to work 24 hours a day. This is something that has troubled me for many years. This is the true scam. Why do they have to work 24 hours in a row? Is it because that is how it has always been done? It would seem to me that if I wanted to perform at my best I would want to be well rested, alert and ready to roll. If I was to be awake for 24 hours or on duty for 24 hours will I truly perform to the best of my ability? THAT is where to reform it. Three 8 hour shifts, cut the fat cats and cut the monies spent on fraudulent welfare and lets not forget labor injury expenses. Oh how about our public transit system. The model most government should see is why is their NO mass public transit system privately owned? Because the model doesn’t work, you pay out far more then you receive in revenue, any businessman can see that so no private bus system it is government owned and well Bernie, Hillary, Barrack, Al Gore and you far left lazy blood sucking turnips how many times have you seen a gun shoot a person? I mean really I left a gun on my porch fully loaded, I live across the street from a school, kids and parents all walked in front of my house all day long, that gun never shot anyone. But the minute I put a person behind it he/she pulls the trigger and its the guns fault! Where is responsibility for your own actions? The last four letters of American spell I CAN, the last four letters of Republican spell I CAN, the last for letters of Democrats spell RATS!
Our system is broke! TRUMP! Make America Great Again!
[…] To close with some humor, here’s a very snarky video about overpaid […]
[…] the famous satirical video on overpaid firefighters in […]
Dont compare yourselves to soldiers,not even remotely close.Heroes my ass,
Sometimes you would think they were the only people we lost on 9/11.Cantor Fitzgerald basically lost a whole company that day.Why do you see yourselves
as heroes and above everyone else,Firemen are paid well for what they actually
do,too well.As any combat veteran will tell you,The only heroes are the ones that don’t get to come home.
Slice it, dice it anyway, you want, but the truth about firemen is most of them are: OVERPAID, GROSSLY OVERWEIGHT, and GROSSLY INCOMPETENT. I’ve been in firehouses all over the U.S. These lazy bums are always eating and watching TV, and they get mad when a call comes in during one of their favorite TV shows or card playing, often delay to answer the emergency call. My father died because of these incompetent fatass, overpaid, bastards.
Firefighters are a joke. They don’t work for a living, nor do they deserve a pension. And who puts their lives on the line? Cops. Everday. No member of the public is under the illusion that Firefighters are actually worth what they are paid. The job is a f’ing joke. Period.
Don’t you have to fight a fire to be a firefighter, hey look I’m a cook and cook nothing, where’s my pension! Look I’m a truck driver and have no truck. Hey look I’m a firefighter and have never seen a fire! Can you imagine paying for each fire fought, the job would pay 38 cents a year! We all have our places but firefighters in Calif. make hundreds of thousands a year for about 2 to 3 days a week of sleeping! Anyone seen any fires lately! Heroes don’t break cities!
I’m a professional fireman in the northeast. I make 31k a year, which puts me under the poverty line in my city. I am currently assigned to a rig that does an average of 15-20 runs per shift,a large MAJORITY of them being after 9pm. Are there slower rigs than mine? Yes, absolutely, but there are also busier rigs than mine. The truth is the average truck company isn’t very busy, their size makes them impractical for most EMS calls. But if you are every hanging out of a 4th story window with fire blocking your exit, you’ll be damn glad we have them. Truck companies are usually few on a department compared to other apparatus though. The engines, medic rigs, and rescues which make up the other 95% of fire apparatus are the busy ones. These rigs don’t sit around waiting for fires; we respond to EMS, accidents, water problems, downed power lines, hazmat, building collapses, trench/confined space rescues, water/ice rescues, high angle rescues, you name it someone has called us to help with it. Do some firemen make over 100k a year? Yes, there are a few that do. These are usually high ranking (captain or chief) members with over 25 years on the job. If you worked for the same company for 25 or more years, being promoted to a position equivalent to CEO or Director, would you not expect a similar salary? The flaw in logic here is assuming that because 5 guys on a department of 300+ make 100k, all other members do as well. If the CEO of McDonalds brings home 10mil a year, does that mean all the other employees are equally compensated? No I think not. On to our pensions; the pension system for my department is 100% self funded. As are many other departments. We don’t retire at 90% or 140%, we retire at 50%. But again, our system is funded completely from money taken out of our own paychecks. The problem with pensions arises when politicians “borrow” from our funds to fix their own economic failures and then have to return the money they took using taxes.
I’ve learned to not get angry reading posts such as this. Yes they are unfair and uniformed accusations, but in the end its our own fault for not doing more to educate the taxpayers on what exactly we do all day or how much we really make. This is a problem we do need to fix.
[…] Most likely, it’s because unions have conspired with government officials to push labor costs to absurd levels, as humorously depicted is this somewhat off-color video. […]
I was a firefighter for many years. Worked my way up to Chief. The current culture in the fire service is that of lazy self serving individuals. They will run the Chief out if they try to make them work or try to impose discipline. Their union will politic to get the laziest person promoted to Chief. It is all about them. Do not be fooled they sit around and come up with ways to get more pay and better benefits. They get their friends elected to office to make life easy for them/. They think they are in charge and in some cases they are. I was fired for trying to make my guys do their jobs. As told to me by elected officials the firefighters are un happy. So you have to go. They then got their buddy in as Chief. Now they do nothing for the public. Hero’s my ass. ZERO’s.
[…] posted a video back in 2010 that used biting humor to complain about overpaid […]
[…] posted a video back in 2010 that used biting humor to complain about overpaid […]
Wonderful video which accurately depicts the publics growing frustration towards fire piggies.
The current state of affairs with firefighter and police pay & pensions is absolutely sickening.
I work adjacent to a fire house in Chicago and they might take the truck out 4 times during the work day. 3/4 times, they’re back within 5 minutes. The rest of the day, they’re sitting around on benches or outside playing “bags” (a game where you try to toss beanbags into a hole in a wooden platform).
The entitlement that firefighters display in these conversations is stunning… and f***ing offensive. This entitlement runs so deep…it makes me wonder how many of them have ever had an appropriately paid job in their adult life.
People need to look at their property tax bills to see how much it’s costing them to give firefighters and cops a free ride for life. Around here, it’s roughly equivalent to having a firefighter stop by my house to steal my wallet once a month, every month.
If they want to continue getting their bullshit unearned overtime, healthcare, and pensions, they should be forced to shake people down face-to-face, rather than through taxes. That would fix this nonsense pretty quickly.
sorry for the lack of punctuation i was speeding through this
and the reason why deaths are so low for FF’s is because of the constant training they go through.
I spend most of my day with the San Diego FD i right now am going through the academy and they make 46k a year and the retirement pension is 60% of your sallary and most of the time the department is actually doing technical training so they don’t cock up at the next call they have an average of about an hour of TV time in a 24 hr period and that’s on a good day. and they get around 3 hours of sleep most of the time they are just on calls because they are required to be paramedics and firefighters so that there is 4 years of school you have to go through and people always pull the it’s not on the dangerous jobs list but that’s because those lists go off paid departments which is only 30% of the nations departments and they go off a death toll not an actual danger factor.
Coming from a family of FFs I agree with the video 1000%. And for the most of you that replied as to being under payed FFs that is, because your not in California. Pretty sure this video was intended for the California FF who is completely over paid and rewarded tremendously with a very padded retirement plan leaving our state in a financial mess. The self entitled god complex that dominates many of the FFs in California continues to manifest a monster with these over paid blue collar employees. The Union’s continue to dominate the landscape and the incomes continue to rise for these FFs. Making California and the taxes to be paid some of the highest in the country. My step brother laughed the other day when telling me he only goes out on 4 calls a shift and gets paid a base salary of 104K a year without overtime and with overtime he is making well above 150K a year. That overtime consists of 4-6 extra shifts a month. In his down time he lifts weights, watches T.V. and cooks at the station. WTF!!
[…] Let’s start with his inside assessment of government efficiency. This is the snarkiest clip I’ve seen about local government, rivaling this brutal video on overpaid firefighters. […]
Listen – the word is out on the Firefighter culture. These are boys clubs, usually populated by the guys in our communities that would have a problem finding any other meaningful employment. They get to wear uniforms and feel important, which is important for their fragile egos. Drunk, womanizing, self-important, lazy, grifting…oh, yes, and community bankrupting. The pensioning of these oxygen stealers is a crime against the taxpayer for what the average firefighter has had to face. But, hey, go ahead and put another dollar in the dirtbags’ pension boot – remember, these are America’s heroes.
P.S. – how much are you getting in your pension package…if you are getting one at all?
Firefighters need not compare themselves or add themselves to the same lines as Police officers, soldiers, or paramedics, because they all do a hell of a lot more than you guys will ever do. I have been to some hellish places myself and seen dog feces on the floor and oversized cockroaches, Just because you deal with those conditions once in a blue moon does not mean you are entitled to absurd pay and pension or be considered a daily hero. It shouldn’t take a whole platoon of you to stand at a scene of a simple fender bender blocking off traffic on major highways causing major traffic jams that last for hours. OOO BOO HOO you saved a family and hurt your knee. I know police officers who chase down dangerous criminals who get bit by dogs and hurt themselves hopping fences, swimming through water, getting hit in the head by weapons, and oh yes can’t forget about the ones who run into fire buildings as well to save families on a daily basis, they do a hell of a lot more than you and get paid the same. Paramedics are actually sustaining lives and get paid a hell of a lot less. I see small towns with and unnecessary amount of unused firetrucks each costing more than a million dollars each just sitting parked up in the garages. Ridiculous. You should really be paid on how many fires you guys actually do fight. I’m sure you would all not consider being a fire fighter if that were the case.
I’m not picking sides but there area few points is like to make.
1.) there are athletes that make a ridiculous amount of money and no one complaines. So much money in fact a couple athletes can usually pay for an entire fire department for most cities and towns.
2.) the average firefighter makes 25-45k a year in the U.S. There are very few departments that pay anywhere close to 100k.
3.) sure, firefighters may have time to watch TV or take a nap but when that alarm bell rings they are going out to save someone’s life, possibly in a building that is on FIRE!
4.) put yourself in a firefighter’s shoes, or police officer or a paramedics or a soldier’s. Think about all the moments you will miss with your family and the constant danger and injury and/or death you will face. What do you think is fair compensation?
I seriously doubt anybody becomes a firefighter for the “money.” there are easier ways to make money.
Look I’m a retired truck driving professional, concretes my game, these firefighters worked less then half of what I worked and get triple what I get. I now play the ponies and make a living. These firefighters are panzies compared to truck drivers! My friend Ronnie and I barely make it, please help us, thanks.
Look I’m a retired Firefighter, I worked 2 days a week for over 20 years and now reitred with a bad foot. I deserve more then 120 grand a year pension helping you idiots, but its all I get! This is not much money, country clubs cost a lot of money, golf balls, fishing trips, nice dinners, this takes its toll on my retirement funds, please help!
Hey my top pay is 60k…. I will make approx. 30k in retirement if my cancer allows me. Notto mention my “bad knee” that I got saving a family of 4. Yup I am so over paid please stop my pension, the desk jockeys here have done so much more Hanna me, and they will provide for my family when I’m dead in 6 months.
Just talked to a firemans brother, he says he is 50 and has workd 20 years dozing for dollars! Now get this if he works another 3 years he will get 140% retirement, thats roughtly 180,000 a year retired. This is nothing but stolen taxpayer money, these lazy , sit on their butts video game players should all be fired and new crews brought in at a third of the price. These so called heroes have ruined the economy period, outrageous pensions have sucked the cities dry! Cops, firedozers, teachers, etc. pensions and salaries should be stopped now to save America, the public pay scam needs to be under control, the public needs to be able to vote on these outrageous salaries! I feel all these positions should make about 10 grand a year to make up for all the stolen cash they’ve swindled from the taxpayer!!!
Listen to all of the lame ass justificaton that these overpaid hose monkeys have. Things like “remember 9/11”, “we spend 24 hrs away from our families”, “we don’t know if we may be coming home the next day”, etc. blah, blah blah. Truth is is that these guys are using the same old excuses they’ve been fooling the public with for years. Finally, with the internet and better research tools, the public has wised up and now knows the truth.
First, I fucking hate it when these guys play the 9/11 card. Most of them weren’t even there, especially those overpaid CA pussies. Secondly, there are 1000 other guys that would spend 24 hrs away from their families to be able to have 4 days off every week! Third, you CAN almost count on every fireman coming home the next day. This is 2011. With building codes these days, firemen mainly are putting out fires from food on the stove. Hell, the occupation of firefighter is not even ranked in the top 30 of most dangerous jobs anymore. You have just as big of chance getting killed in a car accident as a fireman has from his lame ass “job.” Even loggers, highway workers, and fucking window washers take more risk than them. As far as medical calls, a fucking ambulance with 2 guys can handle those. Fuck those fat ass pieces of shit… make them all volunteer and I guarantee you won’t see much difference in the response or result of emergency calls.
Urban Firefighter, Boston firefighters easily make over 100k and sleep half the time on the job. Move to MA.
You chose the damn job you got into ok so stop complaining just cuz your shi tty little job doesnt pay as much as one that is physically and mentally more demanding than. A FF is like a soldier that fights fires except no one wants to go through the training(years) and school just like, a Doctor, and they all dont make the same. When I came in I made around 25000 and I live near Washington DC, most guys hear make like 100k but after years and years of service.
Fire Service is what we(voting/taxpaying folk) make it. A passive public has allowed it to bloat, and the workers have lost any sense of honor and respect for the public. Only severe measures will correct the excesses. I don’t see any civil authority ready for that task. California is way too far gone. Affirmative action, coddling illegals, cowering in the face of street thugs. No spine left.
If everyone thinks firefighters are overpaid then I think EVERYONE should be required to attend the mandatory firefighting classes become certified and be required to be on duty 20 hours a week then there would be no need for a paid dept. Think of the savings. We could apply the same concept to EMS and Police also. No more pensions. No more paid staff. But why should I do it for free? Because the people who demand it be done for free won’t do it themselves its always “for someone else to do”.
Blah, Blah, Blah… Please, if you do not know where firefighters make over $100,000 a year and huge retirement checks that they pumped up their last years of work, read the newspaper or internet news. Check out cities in southern California etc. To all of the firefighters out their working for correct wages etc., Thank You, job well done! To the others who are driving cities to bankruptcy with all of their tactics and also want more, hopefully this economy forces our government to look into firefighters Grand Larceny inflicted on us and change things NOW.
Wow.. FF’s are lazy. FF’s just watch tv all day. FF’s make so much money. FF’s only work ten days a month. FF’s get a ridiculous pension. To the people on here bashing FF’s, have any of you actually been a FF? Not your friend or your daddy, but you? What research have you done to justify your obvious speculations? Judging from some of the comments, not much. Not that he is the only one, but since he was the last to post, we’ll use him for this exercise. Jay, please tell me, where do you get your information because it’s painfully obvious you have NO CLUE what you’re talking about. What dept did you work for? What extensive research did you do? I make $37,000 a year. But wait, that’s before the gov’t takes their cut, let’s not forget health insurance, and 8% of every paycheck going towards my pension. If we’re getting paid 100k, I must have missed out on that one. For that matter, every guy in my dept. missed that memo. Retire with a full salary? Haha please tell me where you got that from?! That comment is too ignorant to respond any further to. My two days off between each shift? I spend that at my other job like that majority of FF’s do. Lay around the station and do nothing but eat and watch tv? How about inspect our trucks and our equipment, making sure they’re at the ready to function properly. Continuous education and training because unlike most jobs, ours is not the same everyday. At a moment’s notice, I’m in a burning building, on a busy highway for a rollover, or doing CPR on someone’s mother, grandfather, or infant child. Is there down time? Sure, every job has down time. The difference is that most people can control what their doing at work. Most people can show up for work and if they feel like half-assing it that day, no big deal. FF’s don’t get that option. For every “quiet” day, there’s a day your running 20 calls. And if FF’s half-ass it, someone is sure to suffer dire consequences, like death for example.
I could go on and on, but it’s not like you will listen or change your mind. You can’t understand something that you don’t know, that you don’t experience first hand. You have never seen the look in someone’s face as they watch their home and all their belongings burn. You have never heard the pleas of a mother begging you to save her child that stopped breathing. That’s not something you go home at the end of the day and “sleep off”. What you think you know, you’ve heard second hand or seen it on “Rescue Me”.
FF’s know the physical dangers and emotional damage associated with this job and we do it anyways. So because we accept and deal with that, we’re not entitled to a decent retirement or at the very least, compensation above the median income?
Don’t misunderstand me, I am by no means complaining about my job. I wouldn’t trade it for any other job. I just can’t believe the number of people who have these baseless notions about this job and what FF’s do. Like I said, you only think you know because of something you heard. When the day comes that you have an emergency, are you just gonna skip over calling 911? Let me know how that works out for you. What’s sad is that you will call and a FF will show up. That FF will do his job and help you in every way he can and do it with a caring and compassionate attitude. Now you have your opportunity to tell him how you really feel, face to face. I’d love to see that.
*don’t work hard. correction.
BS FF are overpaid, the first post up top is lying out his ass. You don’t get many calls at night, you sleep most of your day…and sure as hell are not productive. You at the top of list of people who actually work hard for thier paycheck. GTFO you BS. Just like the rest of you gloried taxi drivers. They should revamp the whole shill of how FF get paid. Paramedics that do all the real work, working for a ambulance company..then siting on their ass all day. They don’t sleep on the job either. That shift 24 hours deal, your not working non stop…its more like your hardly working at all. What little calls you do get.
Us firemen work 56hr work weeks, and with very little sleep from running calls. Everyone thinks its so “easy” to be a firemen then why don’t you apply and “try” to get through an academy. Everyone of these comments on here that bash us firemen is just plain ignorant because none of you even know how the retirement system works, yes even you guy who’s dad was a firemen. And to the guys who called us losers and overpaid over hyped losers, well lets just hope one day you don’t need me to save your sorry ass. You obviously have a jealousy towards firefighters because you suck at life!
Wait… where are these firefighters that make over 100k a year?!? I work 56 hours a week as a firefighter with no overtime pay (Labor Law states that I can’t get overtime unless I work over 56.25 hours) for only 29K. To those of you who feel we sit around all day and don’t do anything, feel free to handle your own medical emergency when your mother has a stroke, or your kid falls down the stairs, or your kitchen catches fire. This is a skilled job set- we are not trashmen with hoses and first aid kits.
The alternative… We can go back to the old days of the fire service. You buy fire insurance from me at a price *I* set. If your house catches on fire, and I don’t have a record of you paying my fee, your house burns down. If I DO put the fire out, I send you a bill for services rendered (don’t worry, I’ll only charge what I think my services are worth.)
On that note: please disband paid fire services. I think I might like that.
Zemke’s right , these overpaid over hyped losers arn’t worth half of what they receive. They call in sick so their budies get overtime and extra money when they need it, I know one that goes in sunday night at 10 pm and is off weds. morning at 8 am and thats a full week. Let me see thats weds. thru sun. off and he gets paid over a hundred grand a year, sounds more like a theif then a hero!
firemen are losers who can not get a real job in the real world so they become supposed heroes and soak our cities and counties etc out of ridiculous sums of money, retire younger than others, and get huge, undeserved monies for life. Hopefully this is all investigated and stopped soon!!!!!!
Anytime any of you want to put on Bunker Gear in 90 plus heat and humidity and fight a raging out of control fire, or work an intersection in the middle of the day extricating a dead body out of vehicle. Please come take a ride with me. I guarantee we can put your asses to work. Screw welfare it was meant to be a freaking supplement not a lifestyle. All of you lazy asses out there that are going around getting buisnesses to sign your unemployment sheet knowing damn well your not qualified for the job. You bunch of blood sucking irresponsible shit bags. Oh by the way I’m in the Military as well and I know alot of older people have made a late choice in life to join due to the economy. At least they are doing something unlike you scum bags that get on here a bitch about its not fair. Just in Life Is Not Fair. Not everyone gets a freaking trophy like freaking little league. Little Johnny does not get to play just because his parents paid. You have to earn your position in life and somebody has to flip the burgers! OUT!!!!!!
I am a paid firefighter in an overwhelmingly “impoverished” east coast city. I can tell you that, while I feel lucky to be paid as well as I am, I am FAR from overpaid. When I started a few years ago, I was being paid barely over the poverty level. Since then, I’ve had built-in step increases and been promoted once. I now make a whopping $13,000 more annually than I did when i started.
Let me start by saying that, yes, from the outside looking in, it probably appears that firefighers are getting paid alot to do nothing. But I encourage you to look deeper. I, as a firefighter, have been into some of the most hellish earthly places. And I’m not even talking about fires. Our city’s neighborhoods contain some of the most disgusting living conditions on the planet. Human feces on floors and walls, cock roaches the size of rats, rats the size of dogs, holes in the floor, horseflies that carry HIV and HBV, citizens with oozing sores infested with crawling critters, used hypodermic needles, and we don’t have a choice. We respond and provide the service no matter. Now, add to this condition, a zero-visibility smoke condition from a stubborn fire. Imagine crawling and knocking over a pot of human urine and feces, then crawling thru it, not even knowing until you come out what has happened.
We also report to work regardless of what the day of the week or the season has brought. Two winters ago, my crew and I walked 5 blocks to a reported unconscious person in 47 inches of snow. Not even the national guard humvees could make it up the street — not because of the snow, but because the ignoramuses got their cars stuck in the middle of the street and abandoned them. Then they yell at us and threaten us with bodily harm because it took us so long to get to their emergency — only to find the patient in full arrest, and having to carry them 5 blocks back out in the 4 feet of snow to the ambulance. Six days ago, in the middle of the May heat wave, we all reported to work in the 110 degree heat index, and, like clockwork, when the alarm came in, we donned our 75 pounds of protective apparel, and were off to the response. Heck, we even come to work on nights, weekends, and holidays. To the lawyer in the crowd, when was the last time you missed your kid’s birthday or your wedding anniversary or CHRISTMAS MORNING to go to work?
And how about the volunteer answer? Our city FD has 300+ people on duty at any given moment (which, I might add, is BARELY enough to keep the system going – in fact, our system’s resources are maxed out and fail on a regular basis). Do you think you can find enough “volunteers” to fill 300+ positions on a rotating 24-hour basis, who will put up with what I described for very long? To the people who mentioned volunteer fire systems, I ask you this: do you live in an area protected by a volunteer fire service? If yes, are YOU a volunteer responder? If no, WHY NOT?
Lastly, lets try to get over the belief that use “overpaid” firefighters and police officers and other public servants are the problem. Do you REALLY believe that? What about the corporate scam-artists that sucked the American economic teet dry, grabbed a golden parachute in the form of a taxpayer-funded bailout, and are now living high on the hog until their (none-too-soon) expiration? Do you think they MIGHT have had a slightly bigger hand in this pot?
And what about THIS problem: Remember those “impoverished” neighborhoods I mentioned up a bit? Well, as an overpaid firefighter, I am lucky enough to have the task of going door-to-door, installing FREE smoke alarms in these homes. Often times, we install a new alarm right next to the bracket of the previous one I installed, which was taken down so the battery could be raped for use in the remote control for the 67″ plasma TV set streaming STARZ-HD thru the digital cable box in the living room. Keep in mind, it’s 1PM on a Tuesday afternoon, and the ENTIRE family is home, watching the movie. Does “daddy” work third shift? I think not. Get my drift. Thanks for reading!
When you leave for work in the morning, you know you’re going home at the end of the day. We don’t. End of story. You think thats a bullsh*t excuse? Tell it to the family of the San Francisco firefighter who died yesterday, or to the other one lying in the hospital bed in critical condition. Or me, after I helped pull the two lifeless bodies of my friends out from under a pile of bricks back in December. Some houses here are slow and there is alot of downtime, other houses do 20 runs in 24 hours and sometimes we don’t get to sleep for 24 hours. Its happened to me.
I can’t speak for what goes on in CA, but every four years here its takes about 2 years to get a new contract with the city. Theres no recyling of money back to politicians and I find it really hard to believe. I don’t know if you have actual proof of it or if you’re just speculating.
You all think money is being unfairly given to us, because you’ve never really needed us before. The most interaction you’ve had with the FD is probably when you had to pull over to the right while we drove past. But I hope this video is the only thing on your mind while you watch your house burning from the outside, or inside,( god forbid) Or when your loved one is laying on the floor and you dont see them breathing. I hope you remember this as every second goes by as you wait to hear the sirens in the distance.
And to say that a firefighter works full-time, 48 hours, and gets paid 125,000 dollars a year is absurd. We pay into our pension from our salary. This wouldn’t even be an issue if the funds weren’t mishandled. Our pensions were agreed upon and haven’t been a problem for anyone until now when the economy is crap. It was given to us fairly and agreed upon mutually and now you want to take it away from us.
How about the billions of dollars that are being wasted in our welfare and public housing? You think you would be able to cut back any of that as much as you want to cut back our pensions? I’ve been grocery shopping and seen ladies wearing expensive clothing and talking on there iPhones in the check out line and seen them pull out food stamps and link cards, and then get into their Cadillacs. And I guarentee this is not an isolated incident. Those are the owns who are bleeding the taxpayers dry. And now were giving them pretty much free internet. 9 dollars a month and comcast will go out and install interet for free in a home thats probably section 8 for a laptop purchased on government money while everyone else is paying 50-60 dollars a month. And I agree its important to support the lower class, and poverty is a big issue across the country, but these government programs are for assisting low income families not for providing for them. Why can’t we put photo IDs on government food stamps or Link cards? Because the people who are issued them are using them. They are being sold for a lesser value and the money is going to other purchases. And now is Chicago there are protests against an idea to drug test current residents of our public housing. This is a great idea. Accountablity for all.
The fire service isn’t the enemy here, just the scapegoat.
FUCK whoever made this and FUCK anyone who supports this…we’re overpaid until you need us…then you cant pay us enough. FUCK FUCK FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!
Fireman are overpaid and underworked….privatise them.
Why are so many fireman fat?
no public servant should retire at 90%, the military retires at 40%
You have a potty mouth as well as a post full of bulls**t.
I find it interesting that when lots of folks with high power degrees were making millions or even hundreds of millions no one gave a “s” about what a fireman made. Then when they finished augering the company into the ground they bailed out with the taxpayer funded golden parachute. Where were you hawks then? There are still folks that get paid far more than what I do and do far less. Do we have minority of FF’s that don’t put all they can into the job? Sure, just like anywhere else. I work hard, train hard, and study hard and I’ve been doing this for 24 years. I know of no one who retires at 45 or 50 years old and I work at a very large department. No one that I know of gets “full salary” retirement. Don’t mistake high ranking management types like you for those of us on the floor doing the real work. I will work until 60 years old, which is compulsory retirement for us, with over 35 years on my job. I will not get a “full salary” retirement. Also, I’m a little tired of hearing that I don’t pay into my pension plan. I do pay, a lot.
Regarding what we send to emergencies. You never truly know exactly what you are dealing with until you get there. It is better to send what you will need in a worst case scenario than too little. We often turn resources back when we determine that they are not needed. It may be a minor problem or a major problem. If it’s major, time is of the essence and to call for help can be too long to wait. Wouldn’t you want the maximum amount of help when you or your family needs it? The folks that I have helped think so.
Folks, in my eyes, we are getting painted with a broad brush over a small segment of our profession giving us a black eye. I work at a busy station, usually 15, sometimes over 20 responses in a shift. Really. It is rare that we “sleep all night”. The days of firemen watching TV all day or whatever are long gone. Honest – we have many things to do when not on responses. None of these things are complaints, I love my work, It’s all I ever wanted to do since I was a child.
It is a shame that we are now the enemy of some. I impress this upon my crew each shift. We better be giving 110% out there, those who do not, I deal with.
Please understand that we are hard working people and care about what we do.
Thanks for reading my ramblings.
In response to Kevin Ford’s post:
1) FF’s only work two days a week:
Even if FFs work 48 hours per week (8 hours more than the “normal” 40 hours work week), that is SIGNIFICANTLY less than the highly paid professionals you compare highly paid firefighters to. Many firefighters earn more than 100K/year while working those 48 hours/week. Every single doctor and lawyer who makes over 100K per years works at least 1.5 times as many hours. Then when you consider the 2MM+ pension you guys receive at retirement, there is no way in hell FFs make less per hour than doctors and lawyers.
3) The median salary for everyone in California is $60K, and we make double that.
Speaking as a lawyer who makes 160K at a large law firm working 83 hours (on average) per week, I make $37/hour. A firefighter who earns 100K per year plus a 2MM pension (assuming they live 20 years after they retire…which they do on average) makes about $67/hour. It is absurd that a person with a 4 year degree and “on the job training” (my job takes a ton of on the job training my whole career too) makes $30/hour more than me. I went to an Ivy League undergraduate school (which cost more than 200K) and an Ivy League law school (which cost about 200K) to earn less than the diesel truck toting guy who studied fire science at the local state school. Then you talk about supply and demand being the reason your salaries are so high and that only the “best of the best” make it onto the force. As the son of a firefighter I can speak firsthand as to the corruption involved in firefighter selection. regardless of test scores, the guy who’s dad was a firefighter (or uncle) gets a slot on the squad. Also, seeing as there are waiting lists ten years long to get on the squad, the salaries she be accordingly reduced to meet the markets supply/demand forces. In law, only the best and brightest make it to large corporate law firms, and salaries are still depressed by overwhelming supply of lawyers and limited demand for corporate legal services. I want to see an end to the fire union and/or a privatization of the whole thing. We can depress FF salaries and still maintain the highest (perhaps higher) bar of excellence among our squads if we make it a free market system. As you probably agree, a free market system consistently produce better and more efficient services and fire fighting should be one of those.
@Kevin Ford
Why do you think that if you privatize Firefighters Departments, it will lead to abusive behaviour? Do firefighters have guns? Firefighters Departments don’t need to be in public sector. You can easily privatize them without any fear that it will get abusive. It is different matter if you privatize Police Departments and Military. Maybe it will work someday in future that this two sector would be also private;) Who knows?:)
STILL OVER PAID BUMS JUST LIKE PARICITS SUCKING BLOOD FROM THE PUBLIC THEN LIYING TO JUSTIFY THE IMPOSSIABLE TO DO JOBS..
ENOUGH WITH YOU FAT PARICITES
There are so many spurious points in this video, I don’t know where to begin!
1) FF’s only work two days a week.
That’s true, but they are 24 hour shifts, which comes out to a 48 hour work week, that’s 8 hours beyond the normal 40 hour week.
2) FF’s sleep the whole time.
While it’s true we are “allowed” to sleep on a night tour, the reality is that we are responding to emergency calls a great number of times a night, and never get the chance to. I’m not complaining about that, it is what it is, and I knew that when I took the job.
3) The median salary for everyone in California is $60K, and we make double that.
The average yearly salary of firefighters nationally in 2008 was $45,700, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. While some make more than that, some make less. Should we all make the median salary? I believe that’s called Communism. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other professionals make a lot more than $60K, and people who clean dishes in diners make a lot less. Should we pay doctors less, and dish washers more to make sure everyone makes the same thing? Why would anyone go through the trouble of going to Med school or risk their life running into burning buildings in that model? Please don’t think I’m disparaging people who clean dishes or do any other type of low paying work, because I’m not. Any work that is done honestly and with pride is OK in my book, but in our capitalist system, compensation has always been tied to factors such as the danger and the amount of training involved, among other things. If everyone could be a Brain Surgeon, the job wouldn’t pay much.
Firefighters today are highly trained specialists in many disciplines besides just firefighting, which by itself takes an enormous amount of time to become proficient at. We are highly trained in Emergency Medical Care (That Medic referred to in the video was probably a Firefighter, since most of us provide the EMS in the areas we cover, and these runs alone take up a huge portion of our tours). We also have to be experts in Chemistry and HazMat mitigation, car accident extrication, and all types of rescue, including, but not limited to water and ice, building collapse, elevator, confined space, and weapons of mass destruction response, be they biological, conventional, or nuclear.
My training didn’t stop in the fire academy, it will continue through my whole career, a lot of it being done in my own time on my days off.
Another reason we are well paid is that when you ask someone to risk their life, you do have to entice them with fair compensation, that’s just common sense. My Father was a Firefighter who died in the line of duty, so I am keenly aware of the danger involved in my profession.
I have never heard a Firefighter, or for that matter, a Police officer or Military Service personnel refer to themselves as a hero. We all consider ourselves people doing a hard, dangerous job that we enjoy and find challenging. If when one of us dies doing our job, the media or someone outside of our ranks calls him or her a hero, I don’t think that’s inappropriate, but as I said, none of us consider ourselves to be heroes.
While volunteer firefighters are for the most part good, civic minded individuals trying to help their communities, there are a number of problems with that model. In todays society, most people don’t have time to get all the training I outlined above on top of a full time job in another profession. The response time in volunteer departments is much longer than paid ones because these individuals are not stationed in strategically placed fire stations all over the city ready to go at a moments notice. They are at another job which they have to leave and go the the fire station, and then respond to the scene of the call. If they work outside of the community they live in, as many people do these days, you might as well forget them showing up. If your house was on fire would you want to wait 3-4 minutes for help, or 12-15?
As far as privatization, why don’t we privatize Police Departments and Military functions? Because for one thing, these occupations that could easily become abusive in their power over our lives, and we have a government system that ensures that these functions answer to the people, not a board of directors. Even though I’m a paid Firefighter, I’m a free market libertarian, and I can see why this model works better than any other to protect my wife and kids.
As far as I’m concerned, Police and Fire are two of the very few legitimate functions of Government, and I would be more concerned with all of the non-legitimate functions that they pick my pocket in the form of taxes to perform. I don’t mind paying people fair compensation for any work I consider to be a proper function of government, since as an employer, the government has to compete with private business to attract employees. I want the best people I can find to be Police Officers and Firefighters, not some idiot who can’t get a job anywhere else. I have peace of mind knowing my wife and children are well protected this way.
I could go on further, but I think I’ve made my point. You’re welcome to disagree with me, because we do live in a free society, but dig a little deeper for facts before you make a knee-jerk reaction to some out of context information like this video.